Coast to Coast, Cocktails, and Covid

http://www.leanblog.org/whiskey16In Episode 16, Mark Graban and Jamie Flinchbaugh take a little longer than usual to get to the lean talk. Our whiskey topic was cocktails, which takes longer to make (and apparently talk about) than pouring neat whiskey into a tumbler. Mark made a Boulevardier and Jamie made an Old Fashioned. We discuss bar tools and stirring versus shaking (sorry Mr. Bond, see the links below). See, we talked about process.We also explore Mark’s experience in traveling coast to coast in his move from Orlando to LA, and share a little more on what we’ve both been up to. For our In the News article, we explore the grand experiment of working from home, and what it means for businesses, technology, culture, and jobs. We even explore how Kainexus is dealing with it as a company. It may possibly be that the grand experiment leaves a greater lasting impression than the virus itself. We spend a little time exploring a listener's question on how lean thinking can help us deal with larger complex problems, such as reopening the economy. And we close by answering a question more about gratitude, which is what surprising good thing has come from our shelter-in-place time? Cheers! Jamie has been working on launching a new program, the JFlinch Learning Lab. You can see the announcement in his newsletter here and you can sign up for his newsletter here.Mark is launching a new podcast with Value Capture honoring the legacy of the firm’s founder, Paul O’Neill. The podcast is called Habitual Excellence, which you can find here. Jamie’s cocktail was an Old Fashioned with Glenn’s Creek Distillery’s Cuervito Vivo and homemade maple simple syrup Mark’s cocktail was a Boulevardier with Michter’s Straight Rye, Campari, and Cocchi sweet vermouthMark and Jamie debate (well, we actually agree) on whether we should shake or stir, but the right bar equipment is important, such as Mark’s jigger. Shaken or stirred. As a fun bonus, here’s every James Bond saying “shaken, not stirred”, and West Wing’s President Bartlett mocking James Bond. In the news, we’ve talked about this grand experiment (with thousands of embedded smaller experiments) called “working from home”. Here’s an early article exploring China who went first, an interesting piece from Fast Company, and something from CNBC about how work will be affected. I also mentioned virtual working expert Sacha Conner. And here’s Kainexus’ blog post about their remote work from March. Podcast feed at LeanWhiskey.com or at leanblog.org/leanwhiskey or at jflinch.com/leanwhiskey Please review us and subscribe!

Shelter-in-Place & Drink Local Live Episode

View the episode at http://www.leanblog.org/whiskey15In a special live-to-YouTube Episode 15 of Lean Whiskey, Mark Graban and Jamie Flinchbaugh begin their week by catching up, drinking whiskey, and talking shop. This episode was an experiment both in video recording the episode and in streaming it live to get viewer participation and questions. We didn't have a large audience, but those who showed up shared what they were drinking and asked some great questions. We used shelter-in-place as our whiskey selections, with Mark in Florida and Jamie in Pennsylvania, we chose local to drink tonight and enjoyed them both. Both selections prove that not all good American whiskey comes from Kentucky. We discussed questions ranging from whether we are looking at the right metrics during coronavirus, to what lean resources should be doing right now, and more. And if you stay around until the end, you get to hear about LEGO Masters competitions and attacking garbage cans!

Monday! "Lean Whiskey Live"

Learn more: http://www.leanblog.org/liveswhiskeyThe first 14 episodes of “Lean Whiskey” have been traditional audio podcasts. Jamie Flinchbaugh and I record them through Zoom and we usually use the video call option even though we have just published audio.For our next episode, we're going to experiment with our first video podcast. We're also adding another new variable — we'll broadcast the Zoom meeting live through YouTube!We will start broadcasting at 8 pm ET on Monday, March 30th.The live stream will also be available for on-demand viewing through YouTube if you can't attend live.The recorded audio will also be published in the usual way if you don't want to see our faces or if you have enough screen time and video chat time these days, as it is. We hope this will add value to our small, but loyal audience. :-)How to View it LiveHere is the best process that I've come up with:Go to my YouTube channel pageClick the “Subscribe” buttonClick the “bell” to be notified about “all”You should then get an email about the live broadcast starting up through the Gmail account that's associated with your YouTube or Google account. You will also get a notification on your phone if you have the YouTube app (and notifications turned on for it).You can also go to my channel just before 8 PM ET on Monday.If I come up with a better process, I'll update this page.You'll be able to ask questions through the YouTube Chat functionality and we'll monitor that so we can address them. You can also submit questions in advance here.I've searched and there doesn't appear to be a single URL that I can share for the webstream, as each broadcast seems to generate a unique URL.I've tested the technology and feel 95% confident that this will work, tech-wise. My evening internet bandwidth is the biggest risk when everybody in the building is watching streaming video of various sorts.Future Experiments?We might also experiment in the future where we'll add additional guests to be with us in the conversation. Or, we might open up the Zoom meeting to allow people to watch there and to ask questions through video or the chat window.We want to strike a balance between getting input and participation from people without it becoming an unmanageable group chat.

Coronavirus, Supply Chains, and Just-in-Time; Adding Water to Whiskey

http://www.leanblog.org/whiskey14In Episode 14 of Lean Whiskey, Mark Graban and Jamie Flinchbaugh finish off another weekend by catching up, drinking whiskey, and talking shop. In whiskey, we explore the idea of adding water to your whiskey. Rather than take the tradition as fact, the lean thinker must seek an understanding of cause and effect. We find some of the research, and perform our experiments to validate that it actually works. We move on to a more serious topic, coronavirus or Covid-19, and its impact on your supply chain. We avoid any exploration in the medical advice category, but focus on a key question that comes up any time there is a massive supply chain impact: does Lean just-in-time approach strip out too much inventory? In addition to exploring this question, we expand on it by examining how companies deal with the less predictable risks such as this health crisis. We move on to explore a nearly timeless question from a listener:"We've led a grass roots lean initiative at my company for the past couple of years. It has been successful, but we are struggling to take it to the next level and get buy in from upper management. Upper management is slow to change and set in their ways. Any advice on how to 'sell' this internally?"Mark and Jamie break this problem down for how you can examine it in your organization. We finish by talking about our different approaches to presentations, with Mark reducing word count and using pictures to tell the story, and Jamie dropping slides altogether. We equally agree, however, that you must know your stuff if you're going to get in front of an audience. Episode #14 Show Links: Here are some links from the show: Why adding water to whiskey matters (Forbes)NPR's take on adding water to whiskeyAngels' Share water dropper we both used (thanks to Jamie for the gift!) Mark's first selection, Garrison Brothers Cowboy Bourbon Mark's second selection, Longrow Cabernet Cask 11 Years Peated Campeltown Single Malt Scotch Jamie's selection, Glenfarclas 21 year oldMarketplace's article about just-in-time and the effect of coronavirus Mark's blog post about this article: https://www.leanblog.org/2020/03/covid-19-dont-blame-toyota-or-just-in-time-for-your-risky-supply-chain-strategy/

http://www.leanblog.org/whiskey13In Episode 13 of Lean Whiskey, Mark Graban and Jamie Flinchbaugh reconnect in their first joint episode this year, after a couple weeks of guest hosts. Our last episode together was filled with Grinches, gremlins, and glitches, so it was nice to both be in a proper recording location and be able to focus on the conversation and the whiskey. Our whiskey selections were on the theme of the Pacific Northwest, a growing region for whiskey. Mark's Westland American Single Malt Whiskey really specializes in using Oregon ingredients, including 5 different malts. Jamie's McCarthy’s Oregon Single Malt Pot Distilled Whiskey seeks a more Scotch-like style, with importing both barley and peat from Scotland. Our "In the News" segment was more like "From the Archives," as we pulled out an article from 2002 from AME Target Magazine titled Ohno’s Method: Creating a survival work culture by Jinichiro Nakane and Robert W. ("Doc") Hall. This article is filled with nuggets that deserves a thorough read, as it explores the work of Taiichi Ohno, often referred to as the father of the Toyota Production System. We explore lean as a culture, whether a survival culture is necessary, how much lean depends (or not) on the country’s culture, and how fundamentally Ohno created a coaching environment to bring both empowerment and enthusiasm to the workplace. We take a listener question on how to organize front-line supervision, as this topic connects quite directly to the issues discussed in the Ohno article. We close the episode with another fun question in the “get to know us” category, where we explore career paths not taken.

Canadian Whiskey, the Ups & Downs of Healthcare, and a CEO Thrown Under the Bus

http://www.leanblog.org/whiskey12 In Episode 12 of Lean Whiskey, Mark Graban is back and he's joined by a friend from the Lean healthcare world, Ryan McCormack. Jamie will be with Mark for our next episode. You might know Ryan as the creator of the awesome "Operational Excellence Mixtapes" that he sends out via email and he also allows to be posted here on the blog. Ryan, like Mark, started his career in manufacturing and then transitioned to healthcare. After working for a hospital in Winnipeg, Ryan is now OpEx manager for an insurance company. The guys first met through Mark's visits to Winnipeg through the Catalysis Healthcare Value Network and they've shared many a conversation, a whiskey, and laughs at the Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit and other events. In the episode, they share and chat about Canadian whiskey. They discuss two news articles -- one about E.D. waiting times (and the need for Process Behavior Charts) and another about an Ontario hospital CEO's "gemba time" that ended up getting her criticized by employees and in the press. They also share some "Lean pet peeves" and a funny story or two from Ryan's career.